Free Adventures In Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3) by Milda Harris Page B

to funerals. I begged and begged to go to Nico's. He was my favorite cousin. They still said no. At least they let me go to the wake, though. That's something."
    "But why don't your parents want you to go to funerals?" I asked.
    "I don't know. They never said. I guess they just don't want me to," Fiorella said. "And I know it's sad, but I had to at least go to the wake. I begged for that. I really would have liked to be at the funeral too, but my mom said absolutely not and then my dad totally backed her up. Antonio wasn't any help either. He didn't want to go anyway. So, yeah, I'm here, going to school instead."
    I nodded, but my mind was somewhere else. Wow, to never have been to a funeral. What would my life have been like? Would it be better to never know much about death? Were Fiorella's parents right to try and keep that pain from her? I thought about my mom. It would be better if she were alive. Still, it's not like even Fiorella could get away from funerals. Her parents just weren't letting her go to them. It didn't change the fact that Nico was dead and that Fiorella really missed him.
    "I just really wish I could be there," Fiorella was saying. "I miss Nico so much."
    "It's really sad that he died," I said. "It's normal that you miss him."
    Fiorella nodded, "But, I mean, in my head I just keep thinking: what if that bookshelf hadn't fallen on him? What if it fell when he wasn't there? What if he had moved a little to the left?"
    "You can't do that - the what-ifs," I said. "There are no what-ifs. What happened, happened."
    Fiorella nodded and sighed, taking a deep breath. She wiped at one of her eyes. It was funny. I had been to so many funerals and seen so much of loss, but I still didn't know quite what to do when someone had an emotional breakdown in front of me because of it all. There was really nothing that was going to make it all okay, you know? Well, except maybe more time. Even then, it wasn't like you didn't still miss the person that died.
    "But, I mean, like what if Antonio had met him to study for their math test like he was supposed to instead of going to hook up with his girlfriend, you know?" Fiorella was sniffling, tears slowly welling up in her eyes.
    Wait. Antonio was supposed to meet Nico? My mind was back on the case. Did Antonio have a reason to push a bookshelf over on his cousin?
    "Fiorella," I started and then stopped, trying to choose my words wisely. "Does Antonio blame himself for Nico's death?"
    "No," Fiorella said. "He's such a jerk. He doesn't blame himself at all, but if they had met up, maybe Nico wouldn't have died. Maybe the bookshelf would have just fallen on the floor."
    I didn't quite get the answer I was looking for. I tried again. "Did they get along - Nico and Antonio?"
    Fiorella frowned, "Not always. Okay, sometimes they did, but they were really competitive with each other, probably because our dads are always competitive. Our dads are brothers and Nico and Antonio were just like them. I'm sure that Antonio only agreed to help Nico so that he could only hold it over him."
    "Wow, you don't have a high opinion of your brother," I said.
    Fiorella shrugged, "We don't get along much either, I guess. He can be such a jerk. Although, now since he's away at college, I don't have to see him as much, which is a good thing."
    I mentally put Antonio's name on my list of suspects. Still, I really couldn't see all that much of a murder motive in just being a competitive cousin. That didn't rule Antonio out, though. Who knew what people were really capable of if the right buttons got pushed?
    I wondered if I could ask Fiorella about Ed Patawak. I couldn't think of a way to bring him up. Besides, Nico probably wouldn't share information about a bully rival to his younger female cousin. Although, maybe he would share something like that with Antonio, that is unless they were too busy being at each other's throats. Yet another reason to eventually find a way to talk to Antonio. In the